


First Rain

by alenkoblr



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-02-03 06:10:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12742560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alenkoblr/pseuds/alenkoblr
Summary: The sky is a strange and terrifying thing to Devin Brosca, but she has yet to learn of everything it has to offer.





	First Rain

Devin Brosca did not know what to think when she looked up at the sky and saw grey instead of blue. The dark-skinned dwarf had seen it just that morning, and it had been as blue as a cut and polished aquamarine. Now, it was a splotchy gray; in some places, it was almost as dark as coal, but in others its color was closer to raw limestone. When had it changed? She’d been so busy watching the path before her- had it changed in an instant, or had it changed gradually? Was it supposed to change? She was still so new to the surface. Back underground, in the city of Orzammar, she had never had to consider whatever was above her head changing. All dwarves knew that stone didn’t change. Apparently, the sky did.

  
She had been so apprehensive, leaving Orzammar. She had never set foot on the surface until just the week before, and looking up into the sky for the first time had been frankly terrifying. It had been just so vast and so empty, and even though it was above her, Devin had felt like if she didn’t cling to the earth, she might fall into it forever. She’d dropped to the ground and scrambled desperately for something to cling to in order to keep herself rooted to the ground. The human who had brought her out of Orzammar had been so confused when she begged him to tell her how he kept himself from falling upwards with just his feet on the ground.

  
She looked up at the human in question, who was walking beside her. The tall, lanky man seemed unfazed by the bizarre behavior of his sky, or maybe he hadn’t noticed it yet. He was focused on the road, and he picked his way across the rocky path with precision and grace. She suspected that if it weren’t for his armor, his movements would be silent. He must have felt her gaze, for he looked down at her, curiosity in his eyes. She took a deep breath.

  
“Duncan,” she said, “is the sky supposed to change colors?”

  
She felt stupid as soon as the words left her mouth. It was clear that the man was baffled, but in the same way he had been baffled when she’d first seen the sky and had panicked. He looked up at the gray above him, and then down at her again. She could practically see the wheels turning in his head up until the moment where he understood what she meant, and then he started laughing.

  
“Hey! I asked you an honest question, human!” She folded her arms and glared at him while he struggled to stop laughing. “You know I don’t know shit about your sky. I still don’t understand how you people get light from it, let alone why it changes color!”

  
“Sorry,” he said, between laughs. “It’s easy to forget that you’d never even seen the sky until last week.”

  
“If it were stone over our heads, you’d be the one asking questions and I’d be the one laughing.”

  
“I know, I know, I’m sorry.” He took another second to compose himself. “The sky is still blue, Devin. Those grey things are called ‘clouds’. They’re just covering up the sky.”

  
“Clouds,” she repeated, testing the strange new syllable on her tongue.

  
He nodded. “Normally, they’re white, and don’t cover the whole sky. When they’re grey like this, it means it’s going to rain.

“Rain?”

  
“Yeah, rain. It’s water that falls from the clouds.” He looked up again, and then sighed. “It’ll probably start soon.”

  
They kept walking, and Devin kept glancing up nervously at the dark clouds. Questions bubbled up inside her mind, but she didn’t want to keep confusing Duncan, or make him laugh at her again. But, how fast would the water fall? And how much? Would it pour like water from a pitcher, or would it drip like water off of a stalagmite? Would it fall all over, or just in one spot? Did it look like normal water? Did it taste like normal water? And how in hell would water get up there, anyway? None of this strange and terrible world made any sense to her. She thought of the stone that used to be above her and wished she could just turn around and go home.

  
Her thoughts were interrupted by a fat droplet of water hitting her right in the face. She let out a surprised yelp.

  
“Ah, there it is,” said Duncan, holding out one hand.

  
Another drop of water landed on her shoulder. Then another, on the top of her head. One on the ground, two, six, eighteen, and then she couldn’t count them anymore. They fell faster and faster until the sound was like a rushing river echoing in a cave and her head was dripping wet. She opened her mouth to say something, but the falling water splashed against her tongue and her teeth. The sensation was so unexpected that she started laughing. Within moments, she turned her face up and opened her mouth to the sky.

  
She caught all the droplets she could manage on her tongue, twisting every which way and scrambling about, giggling each time she succeeded. Every errant drop that struck her face was met with a delighted squeal, even the ones that nailed her in the eyes. She threw her arms out and ran down the path full tilt. She skidded to a halt some distance away and stared down at her feet, then laughed and kicked up the mud the rain had created below her. Duncan thought he had never seen a dwarf this excited - until she discovered the puddles, of course. All hell broke loose when she discovered the puddles.

  
Even knowing how far they had to go and how much time they could lose if they lingered, he could not bring himself to rush her. There was something incredibly endearing about a grown woman shrieking with laughter and getting mud all over her clothes and she leapt her way back to him via every puddle she could find.

  
"This is amazing!" she shouted, running back to his side, looking for all the world like an overgrown puppy. "This- what did you call it? - This water falling from the gray sky? It's incredible!"

  
"It's rain," he reminded her, shaking water from his hair.

  
The water splashed against Devin’s face, and she spluttered. Then, with a wicked grin, she shook her head viciously and he shielded his face from her hair with a protest.

  
"First light from the sky, and now water!" She spun around, arms outstretched. "What else comes down from up there? Food? Stone?"

  
"Snow, during the winter,” he said, smiling. "Water freezes when it gets cold enough."

  
"Snow?"

  
"You'll see it in a few months," he assured her.

  
She paused for a moment, and then gave him a wide grin. “You know, Duncan, maybe your sky isn’t so bad after all.”

  
“Don’t say that until you’ve seen snow. You might change your mind.”

  
Silence. Then, fearfully: “…Is it really that bad?”

  
Duncan laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, so I actually wrote this for a class and it turned out really nice??? So here it is!


End file.
